First Posted: 10/21/2014

Teenager pleads guilty to third DUI offense

• A teenager from Bear Creek Township pleaded guilty Monday in Luzerne County Court to a third DUI offense and fleeing an accident that involved injuries.

Terry Schatzel, 19, of Thornhurst Road, pleaded guilty to a total of five counts of driving under the influence and three counts of accidents involving damage and injury in three separate cases.

Lorenzo Burgos pleads guilty in road rage slaying

A Plymouth man today pleaded guilty to a third-degree murder charge stemming from a road rage incident last August.

Lorenzo Burgos Jr., 23, was immediately sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison after he also pleaded guilty to two counts of reckless endangerment before Luzerne County Judge Tina Polachek Gartley.

State police charged Burgos with intentionally striking Fred John Kleman Jr., who had yelled at him to slow down when he was driving on Nottingham Street in Plymouth.

Burgos allegedly told authorities he accelerated his vehicle intending to come to a quick stop to intimidate Kleman. Burgos initially had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Kingston police officer charged with drunken driving after ATV crash

State police at Wyoming filed drunken-driving charges against a Kingston police officer, alleging he was intoxicated when he crashed an ATV on Zerby Avenue last month.

John Sosnoski, 24, of Ashley, was charged with two counts of driving under the influence and summary counts of speeding and operation of ATV on streets. The charges were filed with District Judge Paul Roberts in Kingston, according to online court records.

State police allege Sosnoski and Kingston police officer Jonathan Karasinski were driving ATVs on Zerby Avenue near High Street at about 1:20 a.m. on Sept. 29.

For an unknown reason, Karasinski flipped over the all-terrain vehicle he was operating — a 2014 Polaris Sportsman — and Sosnoski, driving a 2013 Polaris Sportsman, swerved to avoid hitting Karasinski and then struck a tree, state police said.

Butler Twp. police seize heroin, handguns

A response to an argument involving a gun resulted in police seizing numerous firearms and more than 200 packets of heroin.

Butler Township police were called to an apartment at 417 S. Hunter Highway on Thursday. The building’s landlord reported Alex Albert Victoriano, 25, confronted him and allegedly pulled a revolver from his waistband and brandished it during the argument.

Police say that Jonathan G. Vega, 23, took the gun away from Victoriano. Victoriano then allegedly grabbed a nearby machete and continued to threaten landlord Rishi Rakshpal. Victoriano then allegedly struck Rakshpal in the face several times with his fist.

Police arrived and were detaining Victoriano when they were alerted that Vega was hiding something. Vega was taken into custody in back of the apartment building just after he had concealed a duffel bag of evidence of guns and drugs.

Police recovered the duffel ,which contained a loaded Colt Trooper MKIII .357 magnum revolver, a Rohm .22-caliber revolver, ammunition and 230 packets of heroin.

Quietly moving bad teachers likely to get harder with support from NEPA lawmakers

• The “pass-the-trash” bill held up in the state House six months ago emerged in new form for a new vote with only minor revisions to win unanimous approval. The law’s intent is make it harder for teachers accused of misconduct to move to a new district and leave their troubled history behind.

“It’s long overdue,” state Rep. Mike Carroll, D-Hughestown, said after House Bill 1816 was sent to the governor’s desk last week. Gov.Tom Corbett is expected to sign it.

Carroll and other politicians had puzzled over the delay in the spring when the Senate approved SB46 only to see it get hung up in House Education Committee.

The pass-the-trash idea re-emerged in H.B. 1816. It requires the hiring district to request — and the sending district to provide — written information regarding any investigation of abuse or sexual misconduct by a teacher. It also includes any discipline or other action — including resignation — done during a pending investigation.

Corbett: 3 Pennsylvanians monitored in Ebola probe

• Three Pennsylvanians who were on a flight from Cleveland to Dallas with a nurse who tested positive for Ebola are in Texas and have not been back home since the trip, Gov. Tom Corbett and other health officials said Friday.

The three people are not showing symptoms of Ebola and are not being quarantined, Corbett said. Their risk of contracting Ebola is very low, the governor said.

Corbett said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had interviewed the three people and they are free to travel until they start showing symptoms, although state health officials said they are not allowed to travel on a commercial flight for a total of 21 days — the incubation period of the virus — after the Monday trip.